In recent years, data centers have seen a significant growth due to their cost effectiveness. With increased number of services hosted in data centers, higher processing requirements for services (such as web 2.0, search, GFS, MapReduce, etc.) and space constraints, the density of servers per unit area has increased significantly.
Traditionally, the servers in the data centers have been connected by wires for networking. However, with increasing density of servers and other devices within data centers, wired link connectivity has led to denser cabling networks that engender several challenges, e.g., FIG. 1. Apart from necessitating significant manual effort in connecting these servers and keeping accurate per-cable information for maintenance and troubleshooting, these network cables additionally affect data center cooling. Cable bundles behind/between server racks, even with structured cabling such as in FIG. 2, or under raised floors can cause airflow blockages leading to inefficient cooling and increased energy consumption. Finally, cables take up substantial space, which can otherwise be used for accommodating more servers.
Several data centers manage the ill-effects of unstructured cabling, as shown in FIG. 1, by putting more structure, as in FIG. 2, and naming each wire carefully to locate quickly which two points a wire connects. This structured cabling, however, still requires significant manual effort, and causes issues with cooling. For instance, FIG. 2 shows that even with structured cabling, cables block the servers substantially making cooling of the equipment difficult. Several third-party cabling services specialize in designing structured wire placement that is tailored to the requirements of a data center but unnecessary space is still wasted and inefficient cooling still exists with these customized cable structures.
Accordingly, there is a need for network connectivity in a data center that reduces network cables, reduces complexity of setup and maintenance of the data center as well as allowing for efficient cooling requirements for components in the data center thereby reducing energy use.